Review - Nuts About Granola Forager Nut & Seed

Brand:  Nuts About Granola

Flavor:  Forager Original Nut & Seed

Where to get it: here @ NutsAboutGranola.com

                I appreciate people trying to be low carb, or Paleo, or Primal, or whatever you want to call it…I really do. But that means there are some things you are just going to have to live without. Potatoes, bread, even granola. I don’t really care if you make an oatless granola, but you can’t just throw nuts and seeds in a bag and call it granola. The presence of raisins in this bag makes this trail mix at best. Dried quinoa, millet, amaranth, I don’t really care if your granola is “untraditional”, but you have to have something in there.

                This is literally nuts, seeds, and raisins. This is not granola in any form. I’m not saying nuts and seeds are bad, but THEY ARE NOT GRANOLA. If you want granola, this won’t do. If you want to use this for anything you have traditionally used granola for in the past, this will also definitely not do. Also, it wasn’t even remarkable in any manner when evaluated on a “nuts & seeds” platform, rather than a granola one. Sorry guys, this is a big miss no matter what you call it.

               

Tastes like:  Nuts & seeds and not granola

Taste rating:  0 if you wanted granola, still just a 5 if you wanted nuts & seeds

Qualities:  Vegetarian, Kosher, Gluten free, Non-GMO

What’s in it:     

Review - Boulder Granola

Brand:  Boulder Granola

Flavor:  Vanilla Pecan

Where to get it:  here @ Abe's Market

                There is something like 4g of sugar in a serving of this granola. That made me immediately suspicious, because granola is pretty notorious for masquerading as a healthy food item, and really being worse than a candy bar. Let’s just say…you can immediately tell the difference between this granola and ones you have tried before it. It’s not bad tasting it just doesn’t taste like granola, in my opinion. It’s very seedy/nutty tasting, so much so that it’s almost savory. The granules are very small, which I kind of liked – I had dumped a palm-full of this into my Greek yogurt. I think this is definitely a snack worth trying, as long as you’re not expecting sweet oat-y goodness.

               

Tastes like:   Seeds

Taste rating:  5/10

Qualities:   Gluten free, Non-GMO, Organic, Vegetarian, Vegan, No artificial ingredients, Made in the USA

What’s in it:

Review: Charmed Bar

Brand:  Charmed Bar

Flavor:  Cashew Butter Apple-rageous

Where to get it: here @ Charmed Bar

                No matter how hard I try not to be, I am majorly seduced by presentation when it comes to food packaging. When I saw these Charmed Bars, my eyes glazed over a little, and I looked upon the brightly-colored, somewhat bewitching packaging with a fever that almost made me drool a little until I remembered to close my mouth. The major problem is that…we don’t EAT the packaging. So there’s that. Fortunately for me, these bars are really tasty. I haven’t eaten the Peanut Butter Cherry-licious one yet, but the Cashew Butter Apple-rageous one was really, really good.

                The bar almost looks…wet (for lack of a better word) through the packaging, but don’t be afraid, it’s just some of the moist apple goodness shining through, and it wasn’t texturally strange at all. The flavor was great, the size was great, this is a perfect 3pm-rooting-through-my-desk-drawers kind of snack. They have some calories and fat in them that shouldn’t be taken lightly, but I work out after work so this is the kind of afternoon snack I need between lunch and hitting the gym, and then eating dinner. Plus all those calories and all that fat come from things that actually grown on this planet, and none of those things are grains. Win!

                 

Tastes like:  A moist & fruity cookie-bar

Taste rating:  9/10

Qualities:  Gluten-free, Non-GMO, Vegetarian, Made in the USA, Kosher

What’s in it:

Review: Pro Bar Peanut Butter Meal Bar

Brand:  Pro Bar

Flavor:  Peanut Butter

Where to get it: here @ Pro Bar

                This is a big, heavy, dense bar. This is not a snack bar, and this is not a bar to be taken lightly. It’s heavy. It has a lot of calories in it. But it’s also full of good, natural things, like nuts and seeds, which are heavily studded throughout the bar and visible to the naked eye. Yes, the NAKED EYE. I know it sounds dramatic, but there are so many bars out there that are just a mass of weird-looking pellets and puree. I give credit where credit is due. This bar wasn’t as peanut-buttery as I would have liked though, it did have a strong seed and nut taste with a peanut-type undertone, minus the butter. All in all this is a decent bar if you’re hiking for a day or away from a kitchen or restaurant – just don’t use it as a snack or you’ll beef up quickly.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Nuts and seeds and the forest

Taste rating:  6/10

Qualities:  Non-GMO, Organic, Kosher

What’s in it:

Review: Hemp Rules Caribbean Crunch Roasted Hemp Seeds

Brand:  Ziggy Marley’s Hemp Rules Roasted Hemp Seeds

Flavor:  Caribbean Crunch

Where to get it: here @ Ziggy Marley Organics

                Hemp seeds are PACKED with protein. My basic stance is that if you like ‘em, add them to anything that you possibly can. I often find that they have kind of a strange taste though, so I was pretty stoked to try some actual flavors. 99% of the time I put something crunchy on my salads - seeds, nuts, roasted chickpeas, etc. So naturally, the first time I tried these I dumped them on my usual lunch salad (butter lettuce, black olives, chicken breast, mushrooms). I did like them, but I found myself wishing they were sunflower seeds. I’m not ready to give up on these guys yet, I think I’m just not the kind of person who likes to eat them singularly. I dumped my other packets of hemp seeds into my jar of sunflower seeds and mixxy-mixxy! I think I’ll keep doing that, because the nutrition on these is just out of sight.

                 

               

Tastes like:  Gamey sunflower seeds

Taste rating:  6/10

Qualities:  Organic, Non-GMO, Kosher

What’s in it:

Review: Skout Raw Pumpkin Seeds

Brand:  Skout

Flavor:  Sea Salt Raw Pumpkin Seeds

Where to get it: here @ Skout Organic

                If you’re into pumpkin seeds, you NEED these in your life. I mean it. Roasted perfectly, because they aren’t roasted They’re raw, but they’re perfect. The amount of salt is perfect, the packaging is perfect, the nutrition is perfect. Not a lot to say, because this is simply simple goodness at its finest.

               

Tastes like:  The best pumpkin seeds money can buy

Taste rating:  10/10

Qualities:  Organic, Gluten-free, Non-GMO, Raw, Kosher, Vegetarian, Vegan

What’s in it: